Ensuring high food standards ‘ is giving us control’

A YORKSHIRE peer has said that ensuring a guarantee of high food standards after Brexit is a prime example of “taking back control” as the Government was heavily defeated in the Lords over the issue.

Peers backed by a majority of 95 a change to the Agriculture Bill aimed at blocking the import of foodstuffs produced abroad at lower animal welfare standards.

Voting was 307 to 212 for an amendment requiring food products imported under future trade deals to meet or exceed domestic standards, to prevent UK farmers being undermined.

And Baroness McIntosh of Pickering, a former Yorkshire MP, said: “I applaud that in this sea change, for the first time in nigh- on 50 years, we will decide how we trade.”

It was the second defeat for ministers in Tuesday’s report stage debate on the legislation, as the Lords earlier backed a move demanding a ban on the use of pesticides near homes and public buildings or spaces, such as schools and hospitals.

For the Opposition, Lord Grantchester warned: “Lowquality food cannot be allowed to jeopardise rural communities by undercutting UK farmers with products using methods that would be illegal here.”

It was vital to signal to existing and future trade partners that the UK was committed to championing high quality standards in food, Lord Grantchester added.

Independent crossbencher Lord Krebs, a former chairman of the Food Standards Agency, said there were “uncertainties” over assurances given by ministers on the issue.

The reverses for the Government follow two defeats last week on the Bill, which introduces a new support system for farmers as the UK quits the EU- wide Common Agricultural Policy postBrexit.

The Bill now returns to the Commons for MPs to consider the changes made by the Lords.